


Going Where Your Heart Leads

by Rinkafic



Series: Misc Stargate [1]
Category: Little Mermaid (1989), Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-04-03
Updated: 2012-04-03
Packaged: 2017-11-03 00:21:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,749
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/374986
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rinkafic/pseuds/Rinkafic
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This is a mashup of <i>The Little Mermaid</i> and <i>Stargate Atlantis</i>, where Ariel is an Ancient, rather than a mermaid.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Going Where Your Heart Leads

Ariel, the late Council Leader Triton’s daughter, made her way through the corridors of the city. She was late for music rehearsal, as usual. In her wake trailed a small red minder, chirping out the time periodically, interspaced with the reminder “music hall.” When it squawked “You’re late!” for the seventh time, Ari spun around, hauled her foot back and kicked the small mechanical pest, sending it flying. It landed against the wall, upside down, with tiny gears spinning as claw-like appendages extended to right it. 

Lifting her skirts and running, Ari made her getaway; it would take the Atlantis sensors a bit of time to reset and recalibrate her minder. There should be time enough to spend alone in her hideaway. 

She had found her refuge by accident, after wandering away on a class walking lecture a few years earlier. Since then, she had secreted away her treasures and finds to the abandoned room, one of many no longer used on this level since the Stargate had been relocated to the new Tower upon its completion. These rooms, in the bowels of the great city, below the waterline, were inconvenient, being too far from the transporters to access the most populous parts of the city. 

Atlantis obliged her by turning up the lights as far as they would go. Unfortunately, it wasn’t far at all because not enough power was allocated to these abandoned sections any longer. Ari flopped onto the couch she had dragged in from another abandoned room and picked up a book from the stack beside her. She loved books. She inhaled deeply, enjoying the hearty scent of paper. She loved the texture in her hands, so different from the smooth manufactured keypads and cold crystals used by her people here in Atlantis. 

The books came from the so-called primitive societies that dwelled on other worlds accessed through the Stargate. Ari loved market days; she loved finding treasures in the stalls and at the tables of the natives of the other worlds. She loved the people too. Her people were so serious. Even the Lantean music she performed with the chorus, which should be joyful and exuberant, was staid and precise and measured. Ari could only wonder how such a beautiful city full of color and light could be some dowdy most of the time.

She wished her guardian understood. She wished anyone understood. Sometimes, she thought her mentor Janus saw things as she did. He was a bit of a radical thinker, but he always rambled on about the future and technology, he didn’t care for people and cultures the way Ari did. And so she was alone, most of the time. She had to take comfort in alien trinkets and alien books she couldn’t read and snippets of alien music she had been able to surreptitiously record on market day trips. It wasn’t enough, she wanted more.

The door slid open and Ariel sighed as the minder buzzed through it, coming to a stop at her feet. “Ariel, you have missed music lessons and choir rehearsal, again. Your guardian shall be informed and he is sure to be displeased. You will go straight to your lessons with Janus, immediately. How do you ever expect to be given a position of responsibility with the Council if you cannot keep your appointments, young woman?” Ari cringed at the nagging tone of her guardian’s assistant coming from the tiny speaker on the top of the minder. 

Pushing up from her slump on the couch, Ari nudged the hated little red robot with her toe. “I’m going, Sebastian. I’m going.”

Not for the first time, she missed her father.

~*~

When Ari reached Janus’ lab, she heard voices. That was unusual as her mentor tended to work alone. She crept through the outer lab towards the bigger workroom, curious to see who his visitors were. She was surprised to see no one in the room. Janus was standing before a panel, rubbing his chin as he stared at the wall. As Ari moved closer, she could see figures moving on the panel, this was the source of the voices.

“Janus? What is this device?” she asked, unable to control her natural curiosity.

“Oh, Ariel, you startled me!” Janus jumped slightly as she walked up beside him and stared at the panel. When she reached her hand up to touch the surface, he caught her wrist and clucked his tongue. “Don’t touch, if you please, my dear. This is merely a modification of a project some of the others are working on.”

She looked at the crystal panel attached to the side of the device and could see where Janus had removed part of the frame and added new control devices to it. “What is the purpose of the original device?”

“It is used to view other realities, to look at other versions of what might be. It is hoped that somewhere else, in another Atlantis, the Wraith have been defeated. The Council hopes to learn how this might be accomplished here.”

Ariel crossed her arms and looked askance at her mentor. “And what have your modifications done?”

He waved a hand at it. “I added a temporal unit, to expand the view over time. The defeat of the Wraith may be generations into the future, after all.”

“Is that Atlantis? Oh, I see, it is! I recognize the glass of the Tower, that is the room above the Stargate, is it not?”

“It is.”

Tilting her head, Ariel listened, realizing that she was hearing translated words and not the Lantean language. “Do you know when this is?”

Janus was frowning. “Far into the future. I have come across these same people in many of the realities during this same time band.” Janus sighed and tossed his chin at the panel. “These are the people that woke our city after a very long slumber. There are dark days ahead. I fear we shall lose our home, Ariel, I have been searching for hours and each time I view another reality, I find the same result: our city dead, slumbering, abandoned.”

“These people woke her?” She was saddened by the thought that her people might have to run away. But it was not news to her; she had heard her guardian and Sebastian speaking to the others over meals. Running to another galaxy was a possible plan being considered to save their people. 

“They are primitives; interlopers, explorers, opportunists.”

Fascinated, Ari watched the screen. “Show me how to work the device, I wish to assist.” 

Janus nodded. “I have grown weary of this. Your eyes are fresh and you have a better stomach for anthropology than I under the best of circumstances. I made some notes, you may build upon them. I need to go attend to my other projects. Keep notes, especially concerning any mention of the Wraith.”

He showed her how to operate the device to view various places in the city as well as other timeframes and realities. “Remember, do not touch the panel. It would end your life, Ariel.”

She dragged a chair over and curled up into it with her data pad. She made notes as she scrolled from place to place in the city, viewing the people that someday, somewhere would walk these halls and inhabit the place she now called home.

~*~

The panel became Ariel’s new obsession, one her guardian actually allowed her to indulge because she was ‘assisting’ Janus. Through watching conversations in the various futures, she was slowly able to piece together that her people had indeed abandoned Atlantis, sinking her to the sea floor to save her from the Wraith. She learned the names of many of the constant people in the Atlantis futures; Doctor Weir, their civilian leader, Colonel Sumner, the military leader, and Doctor McKay, their egotistical but brilliant head scientist.

But over time, Ari became first intrigued and later enamored with the Earthman named John Sheppard. At first it was his appearance that drew her attention; he was quite fair to look at. But then, his mannerisms, his speech, the way he obviously cared for those around him all impressed her. She saw futures where he was the leader of Atlantis, the protector of the city. She saw some futures where he ended up spending his time in the Wraith cells, put there by Sumner. She saw still others where he was killed, and those hurt her heart so she passed them by. 

Always, he was alone. He had his friends, but they had their own lives, he kept himself apart and alone, and that made Ari feel a kinship with him. After weeks of watching and taking notes, she fancied that she might be a little in love with most of the versions of John Sheppard she saw. Being a romantic at heart, she let herself wallow in this impossible fantasy that she could somehow find him and make him happy.

~*~

“Janus?”

Ari sat up quickly at the call of the sharp voice. She stood up guiltily and smoothed out her dress, lowering the volume on the panel’s speakers before turning towards the door. 

“Where is Janus?”

“Hello Ursula. He isn’t here; I think he went to the astronomic laboratory today.”

Wrinkling her nose at Ariel, Urusla slithered across the room, twirling a black curl in one finger. “And he left you all by yourself here? With one of the mirror panels, no less?” Ursula clucked her tongue and moved closer to the panel. 

“I’m doing a research project.”

“You have been cautioned not to touch, haven’t you, dear?”

Ariel hated the condescending tone and the superior look Ursula was tossing her way. “Yes, Janus warned me.”

“Good, we can’t have people disappearing off into other realities and disrupting timelines, now can we?” 

What? What did the nasty woman mean by that? Ariel couldn’t help asking the question aloud. “What do you mean by that, Ursula?” 

“I thought you said Janus told you about the mirrors?” Ursula gave Ariel a speculative look.

“They’re viewing panels, and the panel surface is dangerous to touch.”

“Yes, very dangerous,” Ursula said, picking up the data pad Ari had been making notes upon. She thumbed through, glancing up with a raised eyebrow in Ariel’s direction. “A little fascinated with this SGC, aren’t you, Ariel? Especially a… John Sheppard?”

“Give me my notes back, please.”

Ursula gave her a smile. “Isn’t it so wearying being here all alone, Ariel? Wouldn’t you just love to be part of that world? Cross over there and observe the natives, be one of them?”

Her words were so close to Ari’s dream that she had to bite her lip from screaming out “Yes!”

“Wouldn’t you love to know what else the mirrors do, dear? Would you be willing to make a trade for the knowledge Janus kept from you?”

“What kind of trade? What do you want?”

Ursula waggled the data pad in the air. “A simple trade, really. Just a copy of your notes - information for information.”

Thinking about it, Ariel stared over at the panel, where John Sheppard was coming through the Stargate with his team, wounded again but carrying on bravely. Anyone else could see what Ariel had seen; note what she had made note of. It wasn’t secret information. It was all conjecture; things that might happen in another future, in another timeline. She could see no harm in sharing it.

“What else do the mirrors do?”

“After touching the surface, one is transported to the place within the frame.”

Looking at the mirror, Ari couldn’t believe what Ursula was saying was true. One could travel across the realities, as one traveled through the Stargate? “There must be a downside, Ursula, what are the effects?”

“Our researchers suffered no ill effects. There is a very short window of opportunity to cross back, once that is gone; we assume the way is closed forever.”

If she passed through, no one could come after her, to force her back here? No more red minders following her? No more endless lessons about Council duties that she could never actually take up if they left Atlantis? Through that mirror, she had seen realities where the Wraith War was over. Was it was possible to actually meet a version of John Sheppard?”

Atlantis was going to be abandoned soon. She would have to leave her beloved city forever. If what Ursula said was true, she could still have her home. She had no one here that would truly miss her; she was but a burden to her guardian and a duty to Janus. She could make a difference somewhere else, with the knowledge she possessed.

She approached the control pad and tapped a few crystals, setting it back to a reality she had been viewing earlier that day, to the time when the SGC people first arrived on Atlantis, before that John Sheppard had gone on the mission to Athos and subsequently woke the Wraith and burdened himself with crippling guilt. Perhaps she could help that John Sheppard, prevent some of the tragedy to come. 

“What are you doing, Ariel?” Ursula asked moving up close behind her. 

“Tell Janus I said thank you. You may keep the notes,” Ari replied and touched both of her palms to the surface of the mirror panel, without ever looking back. She fell forward. It was a bit like traveling through the Stargate, though a bit colder. 

When she emerged on the other side, she stumbled, tripping over her long skirt. Trying to find a path to cross with John Sheppard’s explorations, she had picked a place she had recognized - the desalinization tanks - and set the mirror to show that spot. She lost her footing, letting out a squeal of surprise as she fell against the railing and it gave way behind her. She screamed as she toppled into the water tank. The weight of her dress dragged her down and she struggled to right herself and get back to the surface.

She was drowning! She had come all this way to drown stupidly? Inwardly she let out a scream of frustration as she kicked and thrashed in the water.

A hand grabbed her by the hair, tangling in the long red strands and yanking her upwards. Another hand closed on her arm. She stopped struggling and reached up. Other hands caught her and she was dragged from the water and up against a sturdy chest. Arms wrapped around her, holding her and patting her back as she coughed and gasped for air. 

“Easy there, little mermaid, easy. That’s it, breathe.” 

Recognizing the slow drawl of John Sheppard, she relaxed and slumped against him. She didn’t even mind the bulky vest that was poking into her. She had found him.

Once she started breathing again, the chill from her crossing set in and she started to shake with the cold that her dunk in the tank had done nothing to alleviate. 

“Sir, we should take her up to medical and let Doctor Beckett check her over,” Lieutenant Ford said from where he crouched behind Sheppard. He and Sergeant Stackhouse had been the ones that helped Sheppard drag her from the water. 

“How’d you get in the tank, Princess?” Sheppard asked as he wriggled out from under her and stood, tugging her up after him, supporting her with an arm around her waist as her legs wobbled. 

“I… I tripped.”

Ford and Stackhouse and the marines started to bombard her with questions, but Sheppard waved them all down impatiently and asked patiently, “Where are you from?”

Her teeth chattered as she replied, “Here. I’m from here.” 

The radios all crackled at the same time. “Major Sheppard, Lieutenant Ford, report to the Gate Room.”

Ariel reached out and grabbed his hand as he reached to tap his communication device to reply to the summons. “Don’t go, John. Don’t go on that mission today.”

He stared at her. “Colonel Sumner, this is Sheppard, I think you should go along without us, we’ve found something interesting down here that I think we should investigate further.” 

Sumner huffed out a breath of impatience. “Fine, I’ll take Bates. You had better have something to show me when I get back from this Athos the scientists found in the database.”

“Oh, I think I will, sir,” John replied, returning the smile Ariel flashed at him. “I think I will.”

 

And they lived happily ever after.

 

The End


End file.
